Traveler
by Michie Fang
Summary: Gumi is a Traveler, but not just any Traveler. She's a Traveler on a mission. With the help of her compass, her knowledge, her new companion, and the people they meet, she just might find what she's looking for - and maybe discover something about herself along the way.


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vocaloid. Or their songs.**

**Inspired by the song "Traveler" sung by Gumi. **

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Chapter 1: The Beginning

For the first time in her life, she was leaving the forest.

He'd built the cabin here a few months before finding her and had originally planned to destroy it. The discovery of her body, however, had strengthened his previous convictions, and the cabin survived. Now, so many years later, he'd left them – both the girl and the place they had once called home.

She took a deep breath, shifted the knapsack that was slung over her shoulders, and glanced back again. She couldn't bring herself to burn it down, so it stood there alone, securely nestled amongst the trees like some sort of secret haven.

At that thought, she laughed. The thing was certainly no haven. It was a lump of mismatched woods and clays, an awkward combination of the original structure and its clumsy additions. Most sections weren't connected directly; she had to walk outside to get from her room to the kitchen. On rainy days, holes opened up in the roof and let in buckets of water, and they were never patched before the next storm. During the really bad storms, the outer walls collapsed. The latrine was only a few meters away, and whenever the wind blew down from up north, the smell would wrap around the entire area. Birds nested on the roof and chattered away interminably. Termites periodically infested the wood. They were too close to the sea, so water always needed to be desalinized.

But she'd grown up here, and it was all she knew.

Gulping down tears, she blew a kiss towards the cabin, and then whirled around and marched away. She tightly gripped the pendant that hung down from her neck. Its golden chain glinted, throwing sunlight into her eyes.

Then she closed her eyes and ran. As she ran, she screamed, so loudly that the animals fled and the trees leaned away. She ran and screamed until she couldn't breathe and her legs trembled from the effort of moving – and still she kept running.

There was no time to cry, no time to walk. He was waiting.

_I'm coming for you. _

_Wait for me. _

~=O=~

Their faces still haunted him.

They were always there in the back of his mind, weighing him down with guilt. He'd already accepted that they would never go away. Usually, though, he could keep himself from thinking about them too much.

This was the only day he let the faces dominate his thoughts. Today, he did not eat or drink or sleep or work. He simply sat on the ground and spoke to them.

"I joined a gang," he said, picking at a corner of his threadbare shirt. "It's called Red as a Dandy, RaaD for short. Sounds stupid, right? We're all Red Dandies. Not Dandies. We have to be red." He paused before whispering, "It _does_ sound stupid. But they're really not. The boss is a pyromaniac or something. Some of these guys know hundreds of ways to start fires, and I've heard the boss can set a fire with anything you give him. Get it? We're red, like fires, and like a dandy set on fire. They hate rich people, sort of like we used to, but a thousand times worse."

He abruptly stopped and cocked his head. In the distance, the sound of a trumpet resounded across the land.

"That's the warning," he exhaled, standing up and wiping dirt off his ragged trousers. "Time to go." He bowed towards the three mounds of earth that jutted out of the ground. "May the blessings of Gaia be with you," he solemnly recited, "and may you rest in eternal peace."

For a moment, his eye was caught by the setting sun. He stared in its general direction, wishing he could be out there on that open plain or in that forest or on those hills. Somewhere. Anywhere but here.

Clenching his hands into fists, he began trotting down the hill. Suddenly, he stopped and called out, "I dreamed of someone last night. He had no face or name, but all the same . . . I'll get out of here, and I'll find that person." He closed his eyes and declared, "This time, I'll protect him. Believe it, just like you've always believed in me! Forgive this wretched brother of yours. I won't make the same mistake twice!"

Then he opened his eyes and gazed once more at the distant horizon.

_Whoever and wherever you are – I will find you._

_Wait for me._

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**This story's been nagging at me for a while now, so I decided to try it out. ****Note that there will be romance involved. But that comes later. **

**Sweet dreams . . .**


End file.
